The Flute and Flute Playing

The flute (or closely related instrument) has been known since prehistoric times, but up until the middle of the nineteenth century it was still far from being a satisfactory instrument, despite the quantity of important music that had been written for it. Its tone was poor and thin, its volume was low, its keying system was inefficient, and it was very difficult to play.
The man who changed all this and invented the modern flute was Theobald Boehm (1794–1881), a Bavarian flute virtuoso, who...